


Operation Dinner Out

by Kyoko1381



Category: Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter - Laurell K. Hamilton
Genre: F/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-27
Updated: 2020-11-15
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:33:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,337
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27217978
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kyoko1381/pseuds/Kyoko1381
Summary: Some things are best kept secret, but when the secret is out things can go very wrong very fast. Anita knows this, which is why she never spoke about it, but somehow the secret was revealed and the worst happened. Will she be able to heal from the situation or is she doomed to wither away? Sometimes there's nothing you can do to stop the inevitable, but you can try to alleviate the damage...or can you?
Kudos: 5





	1. Phone Calls

Chapter 1

I sat and stared at the wall, rocking back and forth on the hard thin metal framed bed. I had been here for a good three years if the score marks I put on the wall are anything to go by. My arm was twitching uncontrollably as I shivered from the supposed treatments the quacks that call themselves doctors had given me. The room I sat in was bare and caked with dirt and grim, making it obvious no real cleaning had taken place in this room, much less the whole facility, in years. This place was a hell hole that no one should be a part of and I was stuck here because of my asshole of a family.

I listened to the sounds of screaming, the opening and closing of cell doors and the heavier hundred-pound doors used for the people like me…

…15 YEARS LATER…

I cracked my eyes open to the insistence of my house phone. Why I still had one of those is a fucking mystery to me. I grumbled as I slowly woke and reached over to answer it. It’s not like I had a choice not to, I had gotten rid of my answering machine when they were considered an antique item to most of society.

“Blake…”

It was quite on the other end of the line, “Nita?”

I blanked in confusion as I tried to place the boys’ voice, since his vocal cords were too high to be that of a man’s. “Who am I speaking to?”

I could hear the smile in his voice, “Of course you would forget me. You know Nita; you are the only person that I know that can forget their little brothers’ voice.”

I sat up a little as I became more alert. “Hey little man!” I said smiling as I envisioned him on the other side of the phone. He should be around eight by now and, by the way he was growing when I last saw him, up to my shoulders. He looks has the WASP coloring of blue eyes, blond hair and pail skin as the rest of the family has. He still had his baby fat when I last saw him and even then he was losing it fast in-favor of the adolescent awkward body look where you never quite fit into your own skin for another 14 years. “Sorry, I was sleeping, plus I haven’t heard from you for a couple months and your voice has changed…again.”

“Excuses, excuses…” I heard him give another soft chuckle and then sigh as he lost his amusement.

“What’s wrong Josh?” I asked; for the first time wondering if something was wrong.

“Nothing, well, something…it…umm…well… I was kind of….hmm…”

I raised an eyebrow in impatience as he stammered through his explanation. “Come on Josh spit it out, it can’t be that bad.” My voice was a little stern but it got him talking in coherent sentences.

“Well, I was wondering if…you know…I could…uh…stay with you...I guess.” His voice trailed off at the end as he spoke, as if he knew I would say no automatically if he said it normally.

I froze for a second thinking of all the things that could bring Josh to the point to ask me to do this when he knew I wouldn’t even let him visit for fear that my enemies would get to him. “Why? Again, what’s wrong Josh?”

I listened to him take in a deep breath and then breathe out slowly as he measured his words. “Mom is…and the family has…umm…yeah.” 

Surprisingly I had actually understood what he meant by that very disconnected sentence. “Give me an hour to get there, have everything ready by then. I’ll park outside of the house and come in to get you.” I listened to his sigh in relief that I was going to save him from that hell of an environment.

“Thank you, Nita.”

“Don’t thank me yet,” I said as I got up from the bed heading towards the dresser to get some clothing, “Thank me when you’re eight-teen and relatively unscarred by their shit.”

He chuckled as he processed that bit truth. “I’ll work on the rest of my clothes, I’m already half packed. I’ll see you in an hour, Nita…” There was an awkward pause as he struggled to say something more.

“What is it Josh?” I asked as I pulled on my pants, carefully of course since the phone was in the crook of my arm.

“I love you sis.”

I froze, he never willingly said that before, which means that things were bad…very…very…bad. “I love you too little man, I’ll see you in a few, get ready okay?” I asked as I came out of my stupor and continued to throw on my clothing and weaponry.

I heard the smile in his voice as he replied in a quiet voice, “Okay Nita.”

I hung up the phone quickly, not even thinking that I hadn’t said good bye before I had done so. I had finished putting on my clothing in under five minutes but it did take a while to put on all my guns and knives, which, to me, was the most important part.

I grabbed the car keys and my phone next to it and was out of the house and on the road towards my childhood home. I didn’t want to go back, I really didn’t, but there wasn’t much of an option considering the situation. Fuck, truthfully I should have seen this coming and should have been working on a way to get Josh legally but I was so caught up in staying alive I didn’t think about what was happening to Josh. He’s still so small; I should have made his safety THE top priority. He shouldn’t have to find the courage to call me and ask for help; although in my defense I always believed they treated me different because of my mother, not because their insane. I had never seen them treat one of their own like they did me so I figured he was safe. Damn was I wrong, Josh would only ask for help if things went way beyond bad, especially if he felt that he had to say he loved me as a thank you. He was in the stage in child development that an ‘I love you’ and a kiss from family is considered weird and gross.

I made it to the halfway mark when my cell rang. As I struggled to pull it out of my pants pocket I hoped it was not my brother needing me right then, there would be no way for me to make it. As I finally squeezed the phone out of my pocket, either I gained weight or these pants are shrinking because they are way too tight, I’ll go with the latter, my heart rate has accelerated considerably. 

Which would account for why when I answered the phone I sounded like I had been running, “Blake, what?”

I heard a demonic little chuckle on the other side of the phone; oh alright so it wasn’t really demonic, but I was in a bad mood and the person on the other end was in a good mood and to me that equals demonic.

  
“Anita, we need to talk.”

Damn! I hate those words! Not because it’s the breakup line to every relationship known to man (I currently am uninvolved so that has no relevance to me) but because of who said it. Death was calling and him saying we need to talk generally means he needs information that he’s willing to hurt me for.

“Right now is so not a good time.”


	2. Home Bound

Chapter 2

I heard a pause on the other side of the phone as if he was processing my impatient/frustrated/ tired voice. I could just hear him breathing on the other side of the line as he decided on how to proceed. Oh goody (sense the sarcasm) I was able to make Death pause on his quest of….whatever his quest is; although, damn my curiosity, I really wanted to know what was wrong. Edward was my friend and I really wanted to help him if I can. Sadly, that must wait as I handled my family and then I can almost die, as usual, to help Edward out.

“I know that you’re not in the middle of a case…” I sighed at his half sentence. He didn’t need to finish it since I already knew the question he was asking of me. I mean, never, not once, have I disregarded a phone call from him and, essentially, told him to wait until later. For me to do so means that it is important, to the point of life and death and my family definitely qualifies.

“I have a…personal issue to handle right now and it can’t wait.” See? I can be politically correct just as well as the rest.

“Anita.”

Of course being politically correct doesn’t have any effect on someone who is willing to torture you for information (even though they’re your best friend) and is a highly trained assassin and could probably find out what he needs in five minutes.

“Alright, alright! My baby brother is in some trouble and I have to get him now, and by now I mean I should have gotten him out six years ago. ” There! Nice and condensed! FUCK! See? This is exactly why they say you shouldn’t talk on the phone and drive! I almost hit that small cute old lady that was about to step off the curb because my attention is divided! I really need to get off the phone.

“Anita.”

Of course that may not happen any time soon since it seems my best friend wants an in depth reason as to why I’m blowing him off for my little brother…that, until this moment, he had no idea about. He also has no idea of our parental situation, his situation, and the psychotic nature of my family. We should REALLY have more heart to hearts.

“God damn it Edward!” I sighed in resignation as I accidentally ran through a stop sign. I suck at trying to drive a stick-shift with one hand, it gets really confusing. “Look, I can’t explain everything because that will take forever but if you wait I’ll explain it all in detail, but for now here’s what’s happening. My little brother Josh, age 8 is stuck at the family house, which normally wouldn’t be a problem, except our family is literally psychotic. If I leave him there after he called me to leave, he will probably die or come very close to it.” My heart was beating about 20 miles a minute as I waited for Edward to agree to back of me for a while. I actually began to pray for him to as I also prayed that I would not hit anyone or be pulled over as I reached the block of my family’s house.

Two were answered, but one…well, one was NOT.

“Meet me with your brother at the hotel room I showed you the snuff film.” He said in his “No bullshit” voice and then he hung up. His response freaked me out. If he wasn’t giving me any time to work out my family issues that meant the situation was desperate; and a desperate situation with my brother in the middle of it is **NOT** something I wanted to ever happen. Especially since its Edward calling, his jobs are twenty times more dangerous than any deadly police emergency you can think of. At no point in time did I want my brother to be in any way involved in this side of my life. Whatever Edward wants it has to be deadly and include many illegal activities, more than my usual illegal exploits. My anxiety was through the roof once I spotted my childhood home, and I use that phrase ‘childhood home’ very sarcastically. For the time being I needed all my energy on the here and no to get my brother out of our current problem. So I pushed all thoughts of Edward and his mysterious job out of my mind and began to focus on what was about to come. 

I sighed again as I pulled into the driveway and slipped my phone into my jacket pocket. It seemed that my nice controlled and ordered life was spiraling out of control. It started, as it has a habit of starting, with a phone call from my out dated and completely unneeded house phone. Maybe that was God telling me that I needed to update or such things would continue to occur. *Humph* The plague of the house phone brought on by the Third Horseman of the Apocalypse. I parked and pulled the emergency break, the drive way was at an incline. I slowly go out of the car and froze. For all the rushing I did to get to the house to help my brother, I am now frozen a few dozen feet from him because of memories. I can see everything, my mother being alive and everything being sort of okay, then her death and the hell that came from it, and now Josh facing his own hell. Past, present and future were funneling through my head as I stood and stared at, what could easily be, the most evil house ever known. I even looked up other houses considered evil or possessed but never has anything even come close to this house in history and I only knew my own personal experiences, so that should tell you.

I sucked in a deep breath and pushed the anxiety and fear away and replaced it with my ever flowing anger. It was easier to be angry rather than scared, and the anger will allow me to do what I need to rather than my fear which would paralyze me. As I let the anger fill every crevice, space, and pore on my body as emptied my face of all emotion.

It was time to get my brother.


	3. The Run Around

Chapter 3

I took another deep breath and prepared to enter territory I had thought never to enter again. I took a step forward and was immediately attacked by a fire ball as big as my body. I jumped forward, diving out of the way, barely dodging it if the heat of the fire ball against my feet were any indication, not to mention the smell of burnt shoe (a dead giveaway). Luckily I was used to things coming out of nowhere and dodging them, I don't know if that's lucky or not but it's true. I gracefully rolled back to my feet, careful to look for other traps before I landed on a spot. Although even if there was one, there was nothing I could do about, I was diving in the air, momentum would not let me change direction. 

I felt the heat of the fire as it froze where I had been standing and began to burn hotter. I knew that it would continue to grow in heat until it was at the point of incinerating a person. It made clean up easy, let the wind blow the resulting ash away, no extra work involved. 

I didn't move from where I was as I began to judge the distance between me and the door and all the various traps laid within that space. There were so many that you have to walk a specific way otherwise you'll die in some horrible way. It's one, but not even the top ranking, reason I didn't want Josh attempting to leave the house on his own. 

As I continued to scan the area I began to fall out of the person called Anita and into me, the girl who was born and raised in this house. No one has any real idea what I've been through and what I'm really like when I'm serious or mad or well...anything really. They only get the happy Anita and that's all they will ever know if there's anything I can say about it. Life for them was hard enough without me putting my two cents into their dramas, but for this instance I needed to find that little girl that made it through the hell. I needed to be young me again, the analytical, unfeeling, ruthless, psychopath that was me. Edward said that Nick was a better psychopath than either of us could ever be but he was wrong; one of the few times that he was. There was no one more psychotic, that I have met anyway, than me and trust me my family try's but they can never quite get it right. I am also the most powerful thing that I had ever run into and I've defeated legendary powers. It's not vanity, or narcissism, but fact. The only reason I never use my full power is the control factor. It's too hard to keep it in line, and even though I have been persistent in learning the ropes when it comes to my powers, under the radar of course, it's still too unpredictable. 

I calmed my racing thoughts and prepared. My brother needed me, not Anita, and that was who he was going to get. I knew the rules and I knew how to manipulate them to my advantage. Josh needed that more than anything else that I could offer. So. I cataloged all the physical and psychic traps and triggers as quickly as I could and envisioned the unobstructed path to the front door. I ran to the front door via the safe way, knowing that I had set off a trap which means that in three minutes the triggers will all switch to a new position leaving a different new path to safety and that switch could easily leave me surrounded by fireballs, bombs, on top of a trap door leading to the pits of hell and so on. By the way they really do have magical trap doors stationed on the ground that leads to the pits of hell, quite effective on getting rid of a Jehovah Witness's, and ironic. I had spent a good deal of that time determining the best course of action so I had no real time to move through this dangerous ass maze carefully. 

I barely made it to the safety of the welcome mat before the triggers switched positions. If I had been a second slower I would have stepped right on a spell that would have turned me inside out. Suffice it to say, my family really likes their privacy and will do anything to get and maintain it.

I stared at the family crest engraved in the door, something that had lasted centuries and yet no one but the family knows of it. It has a big decorative B in the middle with a pretty rose in the background throughout the B. In the top loop of the B is a Celtic design and in the bottom curve of the extravagant end of the B housed a WICCAN star. The whole thing was circled by the WICCAN vines. Apparently, the family began as witch's fighting for the good of man; that is so not the case now. That was all I could find out about the crest. The only information I could find on it was within the family archives, there was nothing about it on the internet which, if you don't know, is almost impossible in this day in age. The ironic thing is that the crest is beautiful and used to symbolize a pure line of good magic users, but at some point in time the crest remained untouched as the family became corrupt and evil. 

I continued to stare at the crest as I waited for someone to come to the door. I didn't knock because there were spell-forms all over the door and doorbell. To touch anything meant not only your death but your soul being permanently attached to the house. That was not something that I would fuck with, especially since this particular spell is 130 yrs. old. Apparently, whoever did it had a lot of juice to spare because that spell is still active and as dangerous as ever; it could easily last another 130 yrs. 

I felt a familiar power coming to the door, a power that made my skin crawl. I knew who was coming and that knowledge melted the last of my hesitancy, worry, and strengthened my resolve. I finally was me; I am truly home. With that thought the door opened.

He hasn't aged a day, then again with all the magic around him I'm sure it prevented his ultimate demise. He should be mid 60's but he looked like he was 30. He has the look of a 100% WASP heritage. Blond hair, blue eyes, pale white skin. He's around 6 ft. tall and built like a fighter, which means that all his muscles looked small but we're well developed. He was built like Sylvester Stallone in the first Rocky. He wore the normal comfortable clothing he had always worn, a loose dingy white T-shirt and old jeans, that I knew were soft from too many washings. He stared at me, measuring and weighing the pros and cons of this situation. He was measuring me just as I was him. Looking for mental and physical weaknesses in the other, but I've grown from the last time we've met and I had a handle on everything that was me, and he knew it.

“Child, what a pleasure.” His voice was deader than a current in a puddle. Even Edward would have to respect the level of non-emotion in his voice as top rate.

“Your still alive...Father.” My voice wasn't as empty as his but it was a good effort, if I don't say so myself. 

“Of course,” he paused as he continued to try to determine what I wanted and how far I was willing to go to obtain it. “What do you seek?” It was a question but he said it like statement since his voice gave no infliction to his words. His words never had any infliction, feeling, anything. 

I stared at the man in front of me that claims to be my father even though I don't consider him as such. To me he was just a sperm donor that had stuck around. What did I seek? Well, that was a loaded question if I had ever heard of one, but for now the answer was quite simple. I was seeking my brother and his release from this hell.

I opened my mouth to answer when movement out of the corner of my eye caught me and my 'fathers' attention. We both turned to see Tate watching us blankly. He looked the same as he did before, then again he was a ghost so I didn't really expect him to change. Although, now thinking on it I have seen at least one ghost age, but that's a different story. Tate was like most I've seen, frozen in time and stuck in this shitty house. My father loved this house, because no matter what they do to you, even if you die, they can continue to torment you. Through all the abuse he and his family dished out they fully expected me and my cousins to die, but they didn't want to lose us forever, hence the house. 

I turned from Tate and his ghostliness to focus once more on the man in front of me. If I'm supposed to get me and my brother out of this thing alive and with all my vital body parts I needed to pay close attention to the man who contributed to both of our births. His question although simple sounding was very difficult to answer, if I said my brother he would do everything in his power to thwart me. Another option would be to lie, but that wouldn't work since they have a truth spell placed all throughout the house and the property surrounding it. I'm not even sure if I can get away with a half-truth here, but I needed to say something quick, daddy-dearest will not wait for long before he results to trickery to find what he wants to know and if he does that than any hope of retrieving Josh will disappear. 

“I've come to collect something that was given to me of free will.”

He watched me looking for a way to deny me. I had no doubt that he would try to, he may be pure evil but he loved his son and he knew (just from that one sentence) why I was here. No one in this house gives anything freely, mainly because in the past, before the spell on the house to retain all who die here was invented, the good WICCANS put in an older and even more powerful spell that that says all given freely in the house belongs to the receiver and it cannot be removed forcefully from their hand body or mind within the confines of the property. So by stating my request the way I did I enacted the magic that would protect me and my brother; as long as we were on the property no one can take him from me, but that does not mean that they can’t trap me here. If I get trapped within this house, whether it is physically, mentally, spiritually, or magically than Josh can’t leave either as he gave himself willingly and can’t take it back. I would have to give him to someone else to get him out and other than Edward, who I so don’t want to bring into this, there is no one good enough to do the job. Ah, loop holes, gotta love’em.


	4. Surprise

Chapter 4

After a long pause as he riddled out his strategy he finally backed away from the door to allow me entrance. He left just enough space to walk in comfortably but I didn’t do it. Instead I stayed on the welcome mat as I unleashed a small portion of my magic to ensure that he had set no traps for me. I let out a small burst of energy that was quite undetectable, even the man standing two feet from me was unable to feel the searching magic. I knew this to be true when he gave no response to the magical inquisition, which he would have if he could feel it. I found no traps laid in wait and that just made me more on guard, because that meant that he was biding his time.

I walked into the room that was so familiar. Everything about this room was the same as when I left; seems my family’s aversion to change hasn’t, well…changed. So, predictable in some ways, but when it comes to new ways to torture someone, very imaginative and ever changing. Caution was the main idea here.

I shifted away from him as he closed the door, keeping both my eyes and magical senses alert to any minute change in the environment that might have taken place since my departure, or arrival. I felt some new spells in the house, working in tandem with the old, felt their malice throughout my whole being. There are something’s that my family can’t do, like anyone, and that’s to make a paradox. You can’t have one spell contradict another, it would cause a magical upset that would be very permanent and very deadly to the user and the location that said paradox was created. It’s why they’re so careful with the magic they do in the house, this house has too much old magic in it and they like it the way it is, one little thing could destroy this…little version of hell.

“Would you like a refreshment? Coffee, water, tea?” He gave a slight tilt of the head to the front door, “I’m sure you could use one.” He finished, warning me that he had been aware of my arrival and had watched my mad sprint to the door. He didn’t expect me to take the offer, he knew I was on my guard and that he could never surprise me when I was already prepared for him. There is quite a list of spells that could be concocted into a simple drink. It's been years since we've seen each other but my father isn't stupid. He assumes that I've been spending all these years perfecting my art, and he would be right. I also know that he’s been spending his years doing the same so I am not assuming victory, I know he'll be tough if he decides to try me. At the moment we are keeping a tentative treaty between the two of us, no one doing anything. He and I both knew that this left nothing but words and neither of us were very good at subtlety. 

"You cannot have my son." His voice unchanging but the force behind it showed the depth of his feelings.

"He gave his self to me of his own free will, there is nothing to be done about it. He wants to leave and I know you know why."

His eyes narrowed slightly, he was being very emotional about this. I don't know what has been happening in this house but he wasn't a part of it, for once. Which means someone’s breaking the rules. I know my family doesn't have many but the few that they do have are held in high regard and are never, never to be broken by anyone. I needed to get Josh out to a safe place and I could tell that he agreed with me. He wants to be the one keeping my brother safe but he knows that he's too wrapped up in whatever was going on to do so. He wants to argue with me, make me back off and return to where ever I was previously, but once Josh gave me his welfare he was stuck with me. 

For the first time he looked away from me to the stairs leading to the bed rooms above. Trying to think around this development but not doing so well. It took a few minutes of contemplation but the moment he turned to me I saw the resolve, he was going to give me Josh without a fight. That conceding with no fight scared me more than anything he could have done. Whatever was going on he was afraid he wasn't strong enough and I knew for a fact that he was more than powerful. 

"Keep him away from here and safe." His voice was quiet, "I know you care for him and want what’s best for him. So, although I don't like you, I've witnessed your power and tenacity first hand. I know you won't let something happen to him." 

I couldn’t ignore the danger he was presenting me. I needed to know if it was going to follow me. “How bad is it?”

I saw him stiffen not wanting to over share with the rejected daughter, but knowing that I needed to know something in order to be effective. He had to fight himself to get the information, so much so, the bones in his mouth cracked as he slowly opened it to answer me. “Your sister has opened up a portal to the underworld.” I just stared, no internal or external reaction for that bit of news. “It wouldn’t be so bad if she had sealed the surrounding area first to insure nothing escaped, but she didn’t. It would have also been okay if she had someone to on the side to assist her if something went wrong, but she didn’t. She also didn’t put in place backup systems in case something went wrong. This means, as you can assume, when said something went wrong she could do nothing to stop it.” I could see the mounting irritation floating behind his eyes. He had put all his time into her and had done everything in the world to hurt my growth, but he knew which of us was better. He knew who was born powerful and should have had the guidance, but he will never admit that. “We have it under control but it brought us some…unwanted attention.” Which means that the surrounding covens, who have always hated my family, have decided to have an all-out war with them. Which means they’re going to go after the whole family, young and old alike. Yes, my brother needed out of here, as in yesterday, no…more like last year.

“When did this happen?”

“Two weeks ago…”

I nodded, silently cursing the stupidity of my step sister. This was not going to end pretty, whichever way this ends. “Call Josh down.” He gave a small nod as I felt a trill of magic whisper up the stairs to alert my brother. No real need to speak in this house, he could have just showed me everything but he didn’t want to meld our psyches so closely; something that I have to agree with. I heard the quick footsteps as he ran down the stair with his back pack over one shoulder. He was about a foot taller than when I last saw him, but otherwise looked exactly as I thought he would, with the exception of the bags under his eyes. Something has been keeping him up at night. I knew it wasn’t this terrible situation, the family wouldn’t have told him that.

I gave my father a small nod to show my acceptance of responsibility. He slowly retuned it… reluctantly. I grabbed Josh’s hand and lead him to the door and out of the house without a single interruption. This time, remembering the ward covered path, slowly lead my brother through the magic to the safety of the car. The second he was buckled up I pulled out of the drive way hoping that I would never have to see that house again.

Now that I had my brother safely in my grasp and I had checked to insure that he was indeed clean of magical traps, I could finally focus on Edward. I have no idea what he needs, but I’m assuming that it isn’t dangerous since he doesn’t mind my brother there. I know he doesn’t care for the safety and well-being of children, but he knows that I do and that I would never put my brother in danger. He’s always been considerate of my limits and I don’t expect him to start pushing them now.

It took longer to get to the hotel than I had anticipated, mainly because I got lost a little. In my defense I haven’t been to that place in years and I had only been there once. I finally made it to the hotel. It felt like I've been awake forever but in truth it only been a few short hours, but time is relative isn't it? What's a second to you can be lifetimes for someone else. To an ant, their life time of 8 days to us, is the equivalent of 80 years to them. It’s impossible to judge how much time has passed for anyone but yourself, we make clocks but how accurate are they when you can take a five minute nap that equates to a 5 hour sleep. How accurate is it when you take a 20 minute drive but you get there in 5 minutes. I've done it before, where I look at the time leaving and when I arrive and I realize that I'm in a place I should not have been even close to reaching yet. How is that not a form of time travel? In the threat of danger your mind slows everything down to give the person more time to make a decision and to act on it. How is that not becoming a lesser version of the flash? Isn't that all he does? Be mentally and physically faster to the people around him making it seem as if he's moving at incredible speeds? Wouldn't that be what the real life flash looked like?

I pulled into the bare parking lot next to the door of the lobby. I looked over to find Josh asleep, which makes sense since he hadn't slept for a while, bags like his only come from multiple sleepless nights. I loathed to wake him. He looked so young and vulnerable to the world and the harsh realities it contains. I still wanted to talk to him about why he wasn’t sleeping but that would have to wait. Instead I turned off the car, put his bag on my back, and shoved my keys and essentials into my pockets. With my hands free I was able to pick him up and carry him into the building to Edward’s room. By the time I made it to the door my breathing was a little strained. There is a reason parents stop picking up their children when they past the age of 7, younger if they grow quickly. Those adorable balls of cuteness are freaking heavy small humans, especially when they’re dead weight.

I gave one firm knock on the door, trying to make as little noise as possible to keep Josh from waking. It took a minute before I heard the quite movement behind the door right before it opened. Edward looked the same as he always did, with the notable exception of an air of exhaustion. What the hell, is this some sort of pandemic? His blond hair was slightly longer than his usual army cut, but it still looked neat. His ice cold blue eyes were as blank as ever as his eyes dropped to study the little blond haired boys head buried in my neck. After a few moments he moved aside to allow me entrance. It looked like a standard hotel room with two double beds, a T.V., a small table with two chairs against the window, and a bath room suite. It looked like the owners did an update from the last time I was here, I mean the covers looked newer and the TV was now a flat screen. I walked right to the bed to deposit my burden, breathing a quiet sigh of release as my muscles got to rest. It’s so weird how time moves, just a few years ago I was sitting on that same bed trying to beat Edward at his ‘he-man’ game by eating a steak as I watched a snuff film. I completely lost but you know… I tried. I quickly removed Josh’s shoes and covered him with one of the covers, I knew he hated sleeping without some form of cover no matter how hot the day.

Once I was satisfied that he was comfortable and fully asleep once more, the jostling had woken him a little, I gave Edward a small head tilt to the other side of the room where the table was. He just moved to sit without saying a word. I knew something was really wrong when he didn’t even try to have a pissing contest with me. No matter the situation, Edward has always found a way to fit in at least one stare down to prove that he was better. Instead he looked out the window quietly. I knew he was gathering his thoughts, which by-the-by, is scary as hell. Edward is not one to need to gather his thoughts. He always knew what he wants to say, especially if he has time to prepare beforehand. He had at least 2 hours to think of what to say. The fact that it wasn’t enough means that it’s really odd. I was really starting to wonder if I should have took the hit and not shown, but then I knew that was not an option. I would never leave Edward hanging not matter how much I want too.

“Why am I here Edward?” I asked, tired of waiting for him to start on his own.

“I have a…personal problem.” He started turning to look down at his hands. This is weird… I’m getting the feeling that he he’s avoiding eye contact with me. “Donna…” he paused again, Edward isn’t the hesitant type. “Donna, of her own volition, decided she wanted a baby and that she was going to get it.” Oh, I’m starting to see where this is going. “When I was away at work she ran into this teen mom, they talked, and two days later the baby was born and handed right to Donna. Apparently, the mom had no other offers for the child that she liked, she and Donna met and she approved. They signed the paperwork that day.” I didn’t even breath, this is not something that I knew how to deal with. “I was working a job at the time. I had just finished when Donna calls me about the good news. She said she wanted to say it in person but that she didn’t want it to be too much of a surprise.” Why did he call me? “That was a week ago, and if that wasn’t bad enough she got the most broken baby in the world. It won’t stop crying unless I’m holding it. We brought it to the doctor, multiple doctors, and they have no idea why she’s crying. They just said she must have Colic, which is a doctors way of saying he has no idea why a baby is crying.” He repeated. I could hear the anger in his voice. Whether it is aimed at the doctors or Donna I have no idea. “To put a cherry on this preverbal cake we find out that Donna is pregnant.” Now it’s time for me to look out the window, no longer able to watch this drama unfold, even in words. “With fucking twins.” I closed my eyes and laid my head back. Jesus this was a cluster fuck. Edward went from having to deal with a teen and an eight year old to needing to deal with a teen, eight year old, an inconsolable new born attached to him, and a pregnant wife. A pregnant wife that is over forty, guaranteeing that it would be difficult, but with twins it’s just going to be worse.

“What do you need me for?” I asked, not ruling out the idea that he might want me to baby sit.

“I think the baby might have some magic thing going on, and if that’s true than maybe you can tell me what it is so I can leave the damn thing with Donna or Peter and Becca once in a while.”

I nodded, he wasn’t asking something impossible. It was rather simple and I was more than happy to do it. “I’m assuming that we have to fly to New Mexico.”

For the first time that we started this conversation he lifted his head and looked at me. He must have saw the understanding and agreement to be his magic detector because he smiled. “Thank you, Anita. You may not find anything and you could have flown for nothing.”

I shook my head, “You need me, I’ll be there. A few hours in the sky is a small price.”

He rubbed his eyes, in relief and exhaustion. He needed rest and he was going to get it before we left. “I’m mad at Donna right now, so much so I just want few days to myself so I can regroup…but I can’t. Now, more than ever, Donna needs me, and I can’t abandon her.”


End file.
